Why can't kudzu stop growing?

is there anyway to stop kudzu from growing?

Why can't kudzu stop growing?
Kudzu is sometimes referred to as "the plant that ate the South", a reference to how kudzu's explosive growth has been most prolific in the southeastern United States due to nearly ideal growing conditions. Significant sums of money and effort are spent each growing season to prevent kudzu from taking over roads, bridges, power lines, and local vegetation.





For successful long-term control of kudzu, the entire root system must be destroyed.





If any root crowns remain, the plant will grow back.





Mechanical methods involve cutting vines just below the ground then destroying all cut material.





Close mowing every month, regular heavy grazing for many successive years, or repeated cultivation may be effective.





If done in the spring, cutting must be repeated as regrowth appears to exhaust the plant's stored carbohydrate reserves.





Cut kudzu can be fed to livestock, burned, composted, or enclosed in plastic bags and sent to a landfill.





Late-season cutting should be followed up with immediate application of a systemic herbicide to the cut stems, to encourage transport of the herbicide into the root system.





Repeated applications of several soil-active herbicides have been used effectively on large infestations in forestry situations.








Efforts are being organized by the U.S. Forest Service to search for biological control agents for kudzu, and a particular fungus is currently in testing.





The city of Chattanooga, Tennessee has undertaken a trial program using goats and llamas that graze on the plant. Currently the goats are grazing along the Missionary Ridge area in the east of the city .
Reply:Well it would not be as good for the Kudzu to stop, lay down and die now would it :)





On a serious note kudzu can be a real problem. And simply put there is not any "easy" fix. If there was it would be solved already. Basically you have 3 options.





1) Live with it, remove (weed, rip and or cut) the vines from places they should not be, as they get there. Basically keep your yard and house clean and let the wilds go. If it gets the trees just cut the vines around the base to get it out of the canopy.





2). Aggressively approach the problem with all tools and attempt eradication of all kudzu on your location. This will require dedicated weeding, herbicide application and probably have to be pursued for years to be successfully. Many of the best herbicides will require a licensed applicator to buy / use. This is not a low cost option ( if you are heavily infested) expect it to cost an easy $50-$100 per acre and a big amount of time. Stop the assault for even for a year and its back like it was never gone.





3). The home owners best shot. Use your hands tools and common unrestricted herbicides like roundup or labels brush killer (stump killer works well). Treat with herbicide and after a month rip up what is not dead, destroy as much as you can. The repeat the application of herbicide on what you missed. Dd this as many times as you care or is needed.





This is may never get eradication but you can do a lot to get it under control. Remember, spray the heck out of the kudzu as per label. But if you have desirable things like shrubs or garden plants ( lawns etc) you cant just spray every thing. One trick is to get a foam paint brush some gloves and waders. Paint strait (concentrate) stump killer on just leaves of only kudzu (don't drip on good things). Basically dab 'em all over. Hit only the kudzu and things you hate, the brush killer or stump killer will kill all. Huge coverage of the many vines is very important but you don't need to hit all the leaves in a give square foot, just be average and even. The kudzu is often like 1 big plant (since all the vines are connected) and it can take a real herbicide dose to kill it back.